[Released] Piercing the Fourth Dimension

[Teljoor]

The game has been released .

Jam entry: https://itch.io/jam/wizard-jam-10/rate/556421

Game page: https://teljoor.itch.io/piercing-the-4th-dimension

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For my final Wizard Jam entry I wanted to do something relatively simple in concept so I can be sure I'll be able to finish it. I enjoy parallax effects and 2D animation, so I thought it would be neat to base it the episode title 'Piercing the Fourth Dimension' and create a sort of obstacle dodging game moving through 3D space with (mostly) 2D objects. I think it will be fun to see what kinds of effects I can create using geometrical patterns and simple movements. I recently got a big batch of game music and sounds from a humble bundle, so I hope I can get most of the music and sfx from that.

 

I guess my basic idea of what the game would be like comes from the 'Ninja Pipe Cleaner' microgame from Wario Ware. Maybe a bit of Thumper and Audiosurf as well, but since it won't be a rhythm game that only goes so far.

https://www.mariowiki.com/Ninja_Pipe_Cleaner

 

This is what I started out with on Friday:

Basically, the player stays at the same depth and obstacles are created some distance away. It all fades to black at a distance, so it looks infinitely deep. I'm now working on determining some basic obstacle types so that I can start figuring out the gameplay. I think I'll try implementing a way for the player character to reflect a single obstacle once every few seconds. Ideally I'd also like to implement some sort of final challenge/boss battle, and having an active element will make that easier. One thing I'm concerned about is that it is kind of hard to tell at what point an object is at the same depth as the player character, which makes avoiding collisions harder. I've now got it so objects change color when close and fade out when they can no longer collide, but I think I'll need to add something more.

 

[jan]

Wow, that looks awesome already!

I don’t know if it would fit the style of the game but maybe you could project some kind of real/fake shadow onto objects that are underneath the player to help communicate how close they are.

[brendonsmall]

Wow, this looks cool as heck. The in-editor view of the layers of holes is very good.

[z_bill]

Whoa this is mega cool. It reminds me of the start of each level of MDK. Parachute sequence.

 

Will you ever land? I hope that's the ending. You land and everything's ok...

[Ganz]

Nice! Do you plan on having any collectibles like coins in there? That could be a way to teach the player where the "impact layer" is, but with positive reinforcement?

[Teljoor]

I was pretty busy last week, but I think I've more or less finished all the basic functionality I wanted. There's a scoring system, health bar, and a checkpoint system. I've also added enough features to the obstacle spawner system that I think it'll be able to handle whatever I want to add without too much trouble. I've given up on the obstacle reflection idea for now.

For the rest of the week I'll be implementing subsequent sections. I hope I can add some more complex optical effects without making the whole thing unreadable .

 

This is what it looks like now (not much different from the earlier screenshots, but I'm hoping to add different graphical elements in later sections):

 

  On 1/12/2020 at 10:46 PM, jan said:

Wow, that looks awesome already!

I don’t know if it would fit the style of the game but maybe you could project some kind of real/fake shadow onto objects that are underneath the player to help communicate how close they are.

Thanks. I thought having a shadow was a good idea. I've implemented it in a basic way using a sprite mask that's only visible on the obstacles (it's faintly visible in the screenshot above). Thanks for the idea .

 

  On 1/15/2020 at 4:12 PM, z_bill said:

Whoa this is mega cool. It reminds me of the start of each level of MDK. Parachute sequence.

 

Will you ever land? I hope that's the ending. You land and everything's ok...

I don't have any concrete plans for the setup and ending of the game. At the very least there'll be some congratulatory message at the end.

 

  On 1/16/2020 at 1:04 AM, Ganz said:

Nice! Do you plan on having any collectibles like coins in there? That could be a way to teach the player where the "impact layer" is, but with positive reinforcement?

Thanks. Right now I'm not planning on adding collectibles. The score just increases with each obstacle you successfully dodge. I'm hoping the shadow and the changing colors will be enough to make the dodging intuitive. The checkpoint system should also make it easy to try again if it's not immediately intuitive.

[Teljoor]

This will probably be my last update before the final release. I've removed the scoring system since it was mainly a distraction on screen, and I don't plan on implementing a high score list at this point.

I've been working on implementing more levels and patterns using some simple shapes. This does make the obstacles harder to identify (see below), but it's still doable in motion. One drawback with the 3D shapes is that the sprite mask method I used for the player's shadow doesn't seem to work with them. I'll have to see if I have time to fix that.

I'm also working on a sequence where a big owl appears to shoot stuff at you. It's not really different mechanically from the rest of the game, but I'm hoping it can add some oomph to the final sequence. It's proving a bit tricky to get the timing for the animations right, though.

I think I'll be able to finish the game on time. My main concern at this point is if it will be balanced right in terms of difficulty, readability, and game length. It shouldn't be too hard to patch if it turns out there are really major problems, though.
 

[Teljoor]

The game has been released .

Jam entry: https://itch.io/jam/wizard-jam-10/rate/556421

Game page: https://teljoor.itch.io/piercing-the-4th-dimension

 

I haven't been able to test the linux or mac os versions myself, so please let me know if you have any trouble with those.

 

The toughest part of the final steps was getting the progression of obstacle sequences right. Hopefully I've managed to make it not too frustrating. The collision detection is a bit finicky, but I erred on the safe side, so you might be able to seemingly move through some obstacles. I wasn't able to get the shadows working properly in all cases, but I've left in the implementation as-is since it does help in avoiding collision with some obstacles.

 

I'll be playing some of the other jam entries in the coming week and during the showcase weekend, but for now I'm taking a break.

[Ben X]

This looks and feels great - I love the visual style, especially when it gets extra trippy, and it's very satisfying when you get into the flow. I did sometimes feel like I was just fluking my way through rather than having an 'ah ha' moment and figuring out a tactic, but I made it to the end without using invincibility!